Hello Reddit, I’m Martin O’Malley, former mayor of Baltimore and current Governor of the great state of Maryland, where we’ve passed marriage equality, passed the Maryland DREAM Act, enacted tougher gun laws, held down the cost of college tuition, and driven down violent crime.

Right after this AMA, I’ll be signing new laws to raise the minimum wage and expand opportunity for our middle class families.

UPDATE: Thank you, Reddit...this was fun! I'm sorry I didn't get to do more, I'll try to answer more questions later. Right now, I'm going to sign some bills, including one to raise Maryland's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

1:12 pm EST: I'm back to answer some more questions. I got through as many questions as I could on the first round, and I think some of them got buried in the voting process.

2:15 pm EST: I answered a bunch more, but I have to go. I'm not sure if I'll be able to answer more later this afternoon, but I'll try if I can. Thanks again.

4:45 pm EST: I'm going to try to answer a few more questions.

5:32 pm EST: Thanks for all the questions and engagement today. I tried to answer as many questions as I could during my first AMA! Once again, I signed a bill today to increase Maryland's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. I urge you to call on Congress to take similar action at the national level. Whether you agree or disagree with my answers today...I hope you'll stay or get engaged in the democratic process. We need everyone's voices to be heard.

While not always the case, I've always worried that its difficult to keep a commission "non-partisan" when there is so much to gain if a party can influence its decisions.

For that reason I like to advocate algorithmic redistricting. Basically, you come up with some simple rules for splitting a state into districts (IE split population in half using shortest line), then apply those rules when census information updates.

How can you justify letting taxpayers and contract farmers foot the bill for the 1.5 billion pounds of manure Perdue and other large chicken companies produce every year? Residents and farmers are stretched thin already and Perdue continues to profit while the Chesapeake Bay is dying. And these large chicken companies make up less than 0.02% of Maryland's GDP. How can you possibly justify this?

"O’Malley has received more than $8,000 in campaign contributions from Comcast and its executives. City Council President Sheila Dixon and City Comptroller Joan Pratt, who fill the seats on the Board of Estimates not appointed by the Mayor, have received more than $4,000 and $1,000, respectively, from Comcast and its executives."

Governor, as Mayor of Baltimore you led a dramatic expansion of arrests for quality of life crimes. At peak, you arrested at least 1 in 6 Baltimoreans with no corresponding reduction in violent crime. Your successors have arrested a tenth as many individuals each year or less, with significant progress being made on the reduction of violent and other crimes.

With so much evidence pointing to your approach being wrong, why do you still support increased arrests and new jail construction in Baltimore?

This 1000000000 million times over. We have seen time and time again that "zero tolerance" policing in Baltimore does not work. Mass arrests do not increase citizens quality of life. All it does is overburden the police dept and prevent them from doing real police work.

Governor, under your second term, taxes were raised and dozens of fees were, in some cases, doubled, all within eighteen months, during the worst recession this country has ever seen. Gambling was approved and then expanded by voters with your encouragement, with the money promised for schools. However, as far as I know, schools have not seen an increase in funding. Why are taxes and fees going up when it was promised that legalized gambling would prevent this? And why is that money not going where it was twice promised to go?

There are about 130 schools just in baltimore alone that are in some cases literally crumbling with no funding in sight. Gambling taxes were supposed to be earmarked for education and schools but loopholes have prevented that from really happening

The loophole is that the money definitely does go to school funding - but the money that used to go to school funding is now eligible to go anywhere else as it was not marked for education spending. If you thought that the casinos were going to improve schools...well. Oops?

It wasn't always that way. As pointed out below he was a young attractive dude in an Irish band and ran his gubernatorial campaign on promises he ultimately reneged on (see: BGE rate hikes). I'm a democrat and voted for him because he looked like a fresh face (just like obama), and I regret everyday that I helped take Erlich out of Annapolis.

Why do politicians keep doing AMAs? They know they're going to be asked hard questions and not softballs like the media usually gives them. They can't filter Reddit like reporters. They just wind up not answering most questions and looking bad. Looking worse really.

Was your approval of the 2013 Assault Weapons Ban based solely on the media fear mongering? I ask this because it seems that it bans weapons based on aesthetics, rather than function. For example, barrel shrouds are banned. Their purpose is to prevent hand burns, but some find them to be scary looking.

Because he's your garden variety partisan politician, not the state leader a governor should be. I'm almost certain some staffer was on reddit, got caught, and used the Obama AMA as a cover and he decided to do his own.

I don't have a question, instead I have a comment. I'm from Tennessee, which doesn't mean much to you or to Maryland; but I wanted to write in and thank you for signing legislation that drove Beretta from Maryland and caused them to decide to spend $45MM on a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Tennessee.

So thanks for the money and the jobs and all that stuff. Good lookin' out.

Dude seriously fuck O'Malley on gun control. I used to have a job where I had to carry thousands of dollars in cash from building A to building B in an isolated area on me around 10pm every night and he wouldnt let me get a concealed carry or even a taser.

"That one guy asked me about gay rights. Got that one answered. Another guy asked me about support of smaller campaign donations. Nailed it. Load up the horses, boys, time to get the fuck out of here."

Thanks for doing an AMA. Just one question: How does the Maryland healthcare exchange, which cost taxpayers $90 million to implement before your administration found that it would be cheaper (at an additional $40-50 million) to just replace it than to fix it, show that your Administration has been effectively using taxpayer dollars to better the lives of individual citizens?

I left. The traffic and crime in my area of the state was awful. $400 to register my truck for one year. Best schools? Please. Not in my area. I didn't want to raise my children in the environment of drugs and crime.

Governor,
I hail from allegany county, which by my research is the poorest county in the entire state of Maryland. How can you defend a congressional map where the same US representative represents Montgomery county, one of the richest county in the entire country, and Allegany county one of the poorest. The map you signed into law silenced the entire region of Western Maryland on a national level. Why is it that Western Maryland is always forgotten by the leaders of the state until it comes time to collect taxes or raid our natural resources.

I don't think he knows how AMA's work. You can't give 20 vague answers, ignore all of the remotely hard/decent questions, and expect people to come out of this liking you. Just another failure by the Maryland government.

Why did you effectively make law abiding people into felons because of your political agenda? Are you aware that according to the FBI's UCR more people are murdered each year with knives than "assault weapons"? Are you also aware that hand and feet kill more people than rifles and shotguns combined? I am sure you are also aware that the DOJ has stated that there was no discernible reduction in violent crime or firearm crime during the 1994 Clinton Assault Weapon ban.

Do you really care about your state or are you just passing feel good laws that will not prevent or mitigate crime?

I just wanted to say that it was really cool how that one time you won an election over Bob Ehrlich by staunchly opposing slots in MD, and then as soon as you were in office you were like, "we need slots up ins, yo." That was a pretty sweet move that in no way benefited the public whatsoever. Also, it's great how your answer to pretty much any question about the hundreds of issues plaguing the state, or criticism of you and/or your administration, seems to be to talk about how you inherited a big deficit. This apparently means that you have no responsibility for said deficit it or any of the state's problems whatsoever since you weren't the cause. I mean, it is pretty selfish of the citizens of MD to expect you to fix things that weren't your fault!

As a Marylander, a baltimorean, a college graduate, and a member of the 22-28 year old "young professional" demographic: How do you feel about your rumored prospects at a presidential run when almost none of your constituents in your home state support you?

Baltimore city is a place where you really got your start as politician. First as a city councilman, then as mayor and now as governor. What do you say to that fact that the city has the highest property taxes, the worst schools, deteriorating infrastructure and no presence of a corporate headquarters after 20+ years of your leadership? Why is Baltimore not doing far better than it should be?

Governor O'Malley, how do you feel about John Filippidis, and others like him, pulled over, harassed, and searched, with no other cause than the fact that they are licensed to carry a firearm in another state? Does it concern you at all that your state law enforcement is infringing on American Citizens 2nd and 4th amendment rights?

Maryland is a really fucking expensive state to live in with high ass taxes. People here are mad. The NSA is in Maryland and there are a lot of government workers here, lots of people making $$$ who aren't happy with where their taxes are going.

Just want to pop in here and say O'Malley was pretty against even decriminalization until it passed in the general assembly and even then it was kind of a fight to get him to sign it. He doesn't want to look to liberal when running for pres.

Contrary to that, Heather Mizeur is running for governor and is the only candidate who supports legalization. She was instrumental in getting decrim passed and will use the money from legalization to fund universal pre-k to all 4 (and some 3) year olds. Election is June 24th. Check out www.heathermizeur.com/marijuana

Big mistake with the AMA. Way to raise taxes, enact useless gun laws, bring in casinos and allow a state to crumble. Nobody trust O'Malley. I voted for this guy ONCE. He's a climber. Good luck with your eventual presidential run. I look forward to voting for whoever isn't you.

Good morning Governor. What are your thoughts on speed camera reform? There have been some pretty high-profile examples of corruption with the program in Maryland and it's pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that the program is about 10% safety and 90% revenue shakedown. Do you have any misgivings at all about private profit-motivated companies enforcing laws?

Governor, could you please provide evidence that SB281 reduced crime and recidivism since enactment? As a program evaluator, I would like a clarificative explanation on the logic behind this legislation and what monitoring and impact evaluations will follow.

Governor, I'm a liberal gun owner, but I still can't fathom how SB281 made Maryland any safer. How many times has an AK-47 been used to kill someone in Maryland? How is an AK-47 more dangerous than an HBAR AR-15 or an AR-10 or any other similar rifle? How many criminals have been unable to get a handgun because they can't get their HQL? And, is Baltimore any safer, honestly?

Because politicians (ours in Maryland anyway) don't know anything about firearms and would rather ride the coattails of "we're banning the scary looking things" rather than use logic and reasoning which would get in the way of their knee-jerk written and imposed laws.

How do you feel about enacting "tougher gun laws" and the people who were against the Firearms Safety Act of 2013? The opposition set records in attendance, speaking time, and even shut down the State Capitol for the first time ever due to overcrowding - yet the law was passed essentially unchanged. Does this represent a state government interested in its citizenry?

This issue got an overwhelming response from Marylanders, and was brushed off by the governor as a bunch of outliers. Banning an arbitrary list of specific rifles isn't going to solve our violent crime problem, considering gun violence in the state is almost exclusively handguns.

The thing that really irks me is the concealed carry laws - it is virtually impossible for a citizen here to get a permit, unless they are a pharmacist or have ALREADY been assaulted. A veteran living in the state, currently working as a DoD contractor with a Top Secret clearance - a pretty common demographic near DC and Ft Meade - has 0 chance of obtaining a CCW permit. He can be trusted to defend his country, can be trusted to defend his nation's secrets, but cannot be trusted to defend his family. Make me do a background check, a psych eval, a training course, whatever. I'll jump through your hoops to prove I'm not dangerous (and if I was, wouldn't I just carry illegally?). But give me a path.

I'm from Maryland, and I don't really have anything positive to say about the place except that I'm glad I'm gone. The infrastructure blows, everything not actually in a city is a mess of sprawling suburbia, and I've learned not to trust cops (PG County, represent!). This from the day I was t-boned by a guy running a red light. I got his license plate, make/model of the car, and the name/number of a witness who had seen the accident.

...and the police man who took 20 minutes to drive less than a mile from the station said there was nothing he could do with that information.

But sure, make sure to set up speed traps all over the damn place, because that's where our cops need to be.

I can honestly say PR blunders like this are my favorite thing about the site. From Movie stars to Politicians, PR staff look at this site and say "sweet, free attention, how hard can it be?" and shit always hits the fan, every time. I would love to see the Governor's face right now, "You said it would be stupid questions about ducks and horses!"

This AMA needs to be upvoted to the front page for a few days. Not because of how many great answers the Gov gave, but for the complete lack of responses. More people should be made aware of what a waste of time this man is.

So with these tougher gun laws, can you truly point to a reduction in violent crime? And can you also explain why it is ok to prevent Marylanders from obtaining a CCP in their home state, while being able to do so in just about every state surrounding MD?

Is it true that President Obama had a big hand in guiding the new gun law in Maryland, which is why you decided to pass it, even though it received more opposition than any other bill in at least 20 years?

Last year, I started a small business in Maryland. From a fiscal and entrepreneurial standpoint, it went very well, but I was really discouraged by the amount of fees, taxes and paperwork required by the state of Maryland for nascent enterprise.

The bureaucratic hoops, roadblocks, fees, and taxes, and business laws were so difficult and unfavorable that I ended up shutting down my solvent, successful business and accepting a job with similar work and similar pay at a larger, more established company.

When people asked how my business was going, oddly enough, I'd have to say "Business is going great! I've decided to shut it down and seek a cubicle somewhere..."

If I ever start another business, I'll likely incorporate in Delaware or elsewhere, especially if your minimum wage law passes.

I walked away from a budding business because of Maryland's business environment. What can we do to make sure the next guy doesn't?

"Enacted tougher gun laws"
Thank you for that. That's given me the push I needed to move out of state. I love Maryland, I've lived here since 1983. However, there's certain rights that I'm not willing to lose.

This AMA is why Reddit is brilliant. In a media landscape in which politicians are used to the ability to photo-op and talking-point their way out of any situation, Reddit AMA's provide quantitative documentation (in the form of upvoted questions) of the vacancy in politicians. Thanks, Martin O'Malley, for ensuring I never vote for your sorry ass.

Morning, Governor. Western MD isn't doing too hot these days. The Queen City is looking more and more like Maryland's Detroit, and there's little hope of improvement. Are there any plans the westernmost three countries need to know about?

Quite frankly, no. I rubbed my crystal ball, and foresee O'Malley glossing over or ignoring all the "tough" questions that would demonstrate true leadership and respect for the taxpayers of Maryland. We'll see if he proves me wrong.

I'm so late, and probably no one will see this, but I was on my way to a meeting in Baltimore this morning when I heard this AMA was happening. I just sat down to finally read it, being sure it was all going to be YAY WEED!!! I am so proud of Maryland Redditors right now. Great job on doing the homework and now being snowed by this jackalope who wants to do what he's done to Maryland to the entire rest of the damn country. I hope this goes viral and the rest of the country gets their eyes opened.

This guy is a Jack ASS. ALL AND ALL THE WORST THING THAT HAS HAPPEN TO MARYLAND. Instead of fixing problems that we have he is now sitting on Reddit AMA..... awesome. so how about that street that collapsed due to marylands failing infrastructure. That road had been complained about for 3 years. The continued overly aggressive violence by Baltimore Police officers that make national news all the time is just disgraceful to the citizens of this great state. Its amazing that you think people care about what you have to say.

Why did you implement policies that allowed the burgeoning film industry in Baltimore and around Maryland to dry up so that by my last semester of college, I was able to get out of work actors for my student film who had been on The Wire and in that D.C. Ridley Scott movie just because they needed to pad their resume and show they were 'still working'?

Back around 2007 or so the Baltimore Sun headlined an article about Maryland being the next Hollywood with the amount of films that were coming to town. Then overnight the industry dried up. Another realm of jobs lost to other cities/states or even overseas.

How will you help get them back?

Are you aware to just what extend welfare/snap/EBT abuses and fraud are going on as a daily standard around Baltimore and the rest of the state? I work in Pharmacy Retail. I have for years. I've worked in the heart of Baltimore City. I've worked in the suburbs and I have colleagues who reside in and work in areas such as Dundalk, Towson, and Aberdeen. And every single day we see people come and use EBT cards to buy junkfood, buy ludicrous amounts of candy and just-for-fun foods that my coworkers and I could not afford having jobs, while they pull out the cash on the EBT cards and buy lotto tickets and cigarettes. 60% of our patients are long-term oxy users and methodone uses who pay less for their prescriptions than 60-80 year old veterans with cancer and "decent" insurance. Members of my own family are chronic methodone users who have EBT cards and get more benefits than I can get holding a steady job.

We have "patients" who have said in conversation with one another that they had to drop their job at "the Walmart" because it was interfering with their state benefits. And I personally know people who live together, have kids together, but both have an EBT card (even though they are joining their income long-term) so they both can get separate benefits.

This is widespread and I assure you, is not a secret. It never has been.

This is without a doubt the most horrendous AMA ever (yes! worse than Gary Johnson). I mean… is this real life? These are the people that make all the tough decisions and dictate how much I pay into the system? The man will not answer the questions that the majority of people want.This is what we've come to expect from our 'leaders'. O'Malley is most likely a great person outside the political sphere but is without question a TRUE politician. Or better known as a pile of trash that wears a suit everyday.

O'Malley only won the election because so many uneducated people in the state voted for the guy with the D next to his name and nothing else. He's a complete moron and has done nothing positive for the state of Maryland.

During the hearings phase for SB281, an overwhelming amount of law abiding citizens showed up and presented facts and testimony against the bill. More often than not, these citizens were openly laughed at and dismissed without even a serious thought from the committee. However, when the State brought it's "witnesses", obvious paid-actors to come up and testify, all courtesy was given to them. It is on audio recordings that representatives were "encouraged" (told) to change their votes during the amendment voting phase. Anything to say about these things?

Listening to the live stream of the SB281 amendment vote was one of the single most depressing things I've ever done. Frosh openly told his "colleagues" to change their votes on several occasions. When him and his cronies were confronted with issues they blatantly admitted they didn't know anything about, they just pushed legislation through anyway, 'cause why should they bother being informed on the laws they're signing? Completely destroyed what little faith I had left in the system.

Hi Gov. O'Malley. When I first moved to Baltimore, I met you at a gay bar while you were still the Mayor. Were you ever worried that your interest in the well being of the gay community would damage your political career?

Why is it that a Marylander can own, but can't carry a firearm unless they are a security guard or person with death threats? It seems wrong that guns can be used to protect an employer's money, but not your own or your family's lives. Until last summer, Illinois was the only state (excluding DC) to not allow anyone but LEOSA qualified officers to carry concealed weapons. Crime in Chicago, one of America's most dangerous cities is at an all time low. Do you support Maryland's "May Issue" concealed carry laws?

This AMA is far, FAR more efficient at ending you Presidential chances than what Gov. Christie did in New Jersey this year. I mean that took a few weeks, this hasn't even been 3 hours and no one outside of Maryland could possibly like you now.

First thank you for taking time out of your day to do this. I feel you are uniquely qualified to answer my question. I'm currently a Baltimore City resident and I pay through the nose for property taxes. I'm told my taxes go to education and services, but when I look around my neighborhood there are no positive signs of either. If you don't live in Roland Park, most of the public schools are crap (with the exception of some of the public charters). I guess what I'm asking is this, why live in Baltimore City when the surrounding counties have lower taxes, better services, and less crime?

This AMA is proof that society in america is fed up with government waste and corruption. Americans are ready to stand up and fight the way we did to free ourself from a misguided and bribed government that has become a government for the rich and the bribed. Empirical Brittan is the New America.

We decided to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation, including an assault weapons ban and universal background checks, in order to save lives. Together with law enforcement, we have driven violent crime in Maryland down to 30 year lows and on a year-to-date basis, we have driven homicides down by 18%. We are not done. In our state there is no such thing as a spare American.

Asshole, have you been to Baltimore? Your gun ban has done nothing but disarm law abiding gun owners. You can't even get a CCW without being rich. You banned guns based on cosmetic features that DO NOT make a firearm more deadly. You banned AR15's with one feature but not another? Are you that fucking stupid? Nevermind. We all know the answer to that.

How about 10 rd magazines? You want to reduce crime by banning any magazine higher than 10 rounds but I can still, and do quite often, drive out of state, buy as many 30-40 rd magazines as I want, including a 100rd dual drum magazine for my AR15, and bring it back and it's entirely legal. Hell, If i got pulled over by the police, I could wave it in their face and they can't do shit. Why? Because your dumb ass doesn't want to reduce crime. You want to disarm law abiding Maryland residents. Criminals DO NOT GO THROUGH BACKGROUND CHECKS. They DO NOT FOLLOW LAWS. That is why they are criminals you dumbfuck.

This AMA has showed me two things: 1) how well informed Marylanders are on the policies that affect their lives and they feel strongly about 2) As progressive and happy about some of his past legislature as I am, O'Malley's cherry picking of questions and vague answers really showed me today that he's more committed to his political career and his constituents than he does about helping his former supporters understand the reasoning behind his decisions. Maybe because there aren't any.

Silver Spring resident here. There have been millions of taxpayer dollars wasted on the botched MD Health Exchange website and you really don't seem all that bothered by it. Why not? Why are you not holding anyone responsible for it?

Tougher on law abiding citizens. They shot down every amendment that actually increased penalties for criminals who commit crimes with a firearm. Sen. Frosh and Del. Dumais are so far up O'Malley's ass, they'll know if he has prostate cancer a year before he does.

Thank you Governor for doing this AMA. The most recent gun control legislation passed in Maryland (SB#281) had your overwhelming support, but from the perspective of people who are very familiar with firearms it appears to be a terrible bill that in no way is likely to reduce crime or violence. I'm wondering how any of the list of various firearms that law abiding Maryland citizens are now forbidden from purchasing are in any way more dangerous, more likely to be used in crimes, or otherwise worthy of disallowing?

Last week, a poll was released that stated that 47% of Marylanders would choose to live in another state if they could. My wife and I were very dismayed to hear that because we love living in Maryland! With all that we have going for us here, why do you think so many people are discontent with our state?

I left Maryland last year. Taxes were bad, but you know what was the nail in the coffin for us? I kid you not, it was the speed camera program.

I realize that's a silly thing, but we lived in Columbia, so we needed a car. It has gotten so bad that we couldn't drive anywhere without expecting a nasty little notice shaking us down for $60 for whatever infraction they accused us of. It's one thing if we were being unsafe (for the record, I've been driving for well over 20 years and never been in an accident that I was at fault in), but this wasn't about safety. We're talking open stretches of road with a little speed trap 35mph school zone at 10 PM. Or a right-hand turn at a read light because you didn't stop "behind the line".

I know the popular response is "follow the law" but MD has a record of doing things to make even that harder. They shortened yellow lights at intersections. They post speed limits in hard-to-see places. They know exactly what they're doing because they make millions and millions on this program.

If you want to know what a police state looks like with NSA-style video surveillance, drive a car in Maryland. It's hard to believe that this state was once a center of individual liberty.

Drive down any major street in Maryland, and you'll see every telephone pole and signpost is plastered with distracting, ugly "We buy houses" and "improve your bed credit" scam signs. It really makes our fine state look like a crappy third world country. Can you do anything about them?

What do you say about the fact that this has lost many Maryland jobs or potential jobs as companies such as Beretta (large company), Precision Firearms (small shop) for a law that many feel is ineffectual in actually curbing gun violence (which has already been on a downward trend despite the "assault weapons" ban lapsing in 2004)?